Watch your tone, you piece of trash!

One minute earlier, in the mansion's attic.

Fushiguro looked at the dispirited Kamo across from him, his tone softening slightly. "Kamo, there's no need to keep fighting, is there?"

Setting aside his neurotic, absurd personality, Jiahao was still a jujutsu sorcerer affiliated with Tokyo Jujutsu High.

Having just emerged from the Kamui Dimension, Kamo knew perfectly well that the outcome of the competition depended entirely on Jiahao's whims.

Losing was only natural. Winning... would merely be a handout granted on a passing fancy.

Kamo understood something that obvious, of course. But... he couldn't accept it!

He had been born into the Kamo clan, one of the Three Great Families, but he was a concubine's son.

Because he had inherited the family's cursed technique, Blood Manipulation, he had been publicly declared the legitimate heir.

His mother, who wasn't a sorcerer, had been forcibly driven out of the family. The young Kamo had been powerless to stop it.

The memory of his mother's sorrowful, restrained embrace before she left flashed through his mind. Blood-red curse markings began spreading around his right eye.

To bring his mother home with his head held high, he had to earn the Higher-Ups' recognition fair and square and become the clan head.

As for how to earn that recognition...

It was simple. Defeating Fushiguro would be the best proof.

Megumi Fushiguro belonged to the Zenin clan, another of the Three Great Families, and wielded their inherited Ten Shadows Technique.

As long as he defeated the genius before him, Kamo's standing and influence within his clan would rise.

They had lost the team match, but he, Noritoshi Kamo, hadn't lost yet!

"What a pain!"

Sensing Kamo's increasingly unstable cursed energy, Fushiguro frowned and formed a hand sign.

Do everything he could. Avoid unnecessary trouble.

Living by those principles, Fushiguro didn't consider himself a champion of justice or some brave, battle-hungry hero.

It was best if he didn't have to fight. But if his enemy refused to back off...

Even if he couldn't win, Fushiguro wasn't afraid to take his opponent down with him.

Fushiguro overlapped his hands vertically, forming a sign resembling an elephant's trunk. As his cursed energy surged, the enormous shape within the shadows fully materialized.

"Max Elephant!"

The gigantic elephant shikigami raised his trunk and roared, unleashing a torrent of water that swept forward like a raging river!

Crash!!

Kamo smashed through the wooden window and landed on the ground. Fushiguro followed close behind, changing his hand signs.

Just one second before the two could clash, a towering wave of trees erupted beside them, blotting out the sky.

Rumble!!

The earth shook in time with their pounding hearts!

Both whipped their heads around in horror. That surging wave of trees was plunging straight toward them!

That spine-chilling cursed energy... special grade!

Not a sorcerer. A cursed spirit!

"Blood Manipulation: Slicing Exorcism!!"

As he ran, Kamo crushed a bag of blood. The scattered liquid gathered in midair, forming a blood-red throwing star!

The spinning projectile sliced through the air above Fushiguro's head and struck the spirit beside him!

Clang!!

Sharper than a blade, the blood-red throwing star hit the spirit's throat, scattering sparks.

"Nue!"

Fushiguro formed a hand sign. A giant bird shikigami wearing an iron mask swooped down from above, his talons wreathed in lightning as he attacked the figure beside Fushiguro!

A special grade cursed spirit with a pale body and branches growing from its eyes.

The wave of trees wasn't an attack, but a distraction?!

Fushiguro planted his foot and twisted toward the cursed spirit, bending down to pull a sharp black cursed blade from his shadow.

Clang!!

Coordinating with the lightning from Nue's beating wings, Fushiguro slashed the cursed spirit's thigh as he darted past.

Fushiguro and Kamo stood side by side against a wall, cold sweat sliding uncontrollably down their foreheads.

Three successive rounds of attacks, and the pale cursed spirit before them hadn't suffered a scratch.

Without retaliating, Hanami simply stood there, watching them in silence.

The next second...

"Stop, foolish children."

The cursed spirit's voice belonged to no human language, yet its meaning appeared directly in their minds.

"I don't want to attack you. I only want to protect this planet."

"I bear you humans no ill will, but your existence makes this planet's blue radiance grow ever dimmer."

"So... please die."

As those words fell, countless twisted, thorny branches spread out behind Hanami.

This was different. The cursed spirit before them was far beyond any curse they had encountered before.

Even the three-finger Sukuna who had briefly appeared at the Juvenile Detention Center was no match for this cursed spirit.

Fushiguro looked toward the highest point of the distant forest, searching for Jiahao.

Squelch!

The writhing branches pierced Nue as he swooped down. At that moment, Hanami's pale palm was only a step away from Fushiguro.

Clang!!

A cursed-energy kunai fell from above, striking the ground precisely between Hanami and Fushiguro.

"That's far enough."

In the ruined attic pierced by the towering wave of trees, Jiahao sat in an armchair, toying with a ninja kunai as he looked down at Hanami. "Hold on. It's halftime."

The next second, Panda, Maki, Inumaki, Itadori, Todo, and the others filed out of an expanding rift in space.

They had barely emerged from the Kamui Dimension before finding themselves face-to-face with the strongest cursed spirit they had ever seen.

Clutching her sword's sheath, Kasumi Miwa asked in a small voice, "Um... can I withdraw from the Goodwill Event?"

"I honestly had no idea the cursed spirit we were supposed to exorcise this year would be a special grade."

Holding Kasumi Miwa's cursed-tool sword, Maki raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you a little too naive? No matter how you look at that monster, it's way beyond anything they'd have us exorcise at the Goodwill Event."

The sky had darkened, and a barrier of unknown effect enveloped the Goodwill Event grounds.

An offensive jujutsu attack covering such a vast area, and a Ten Shadow Shikigami lying on the brink of death in a pool of blood.

Todo quickly assessed the situation, then smiled and slapped Itadori on the shoulder. "Looks like this is our final test, best friend!"

"All right!"

Utterly focused, Itadori stared at the special grade several meters away without a trace of fear. Instead, anticipation burned in his eyes.

What was going on? Since when had that lunatic Todo and Itadori become best friends?

Wasn't today the first time they'd met?

Panda, who had lost an ear to Mechamaru's blast, didn't understand, but he was deeply shaken.

Kugisaki and Mai briefly stopped tearing at each other, though their fiery gazes remained locked.

Everyone had initially been startled by the special grade cursed spirit's sudden appearance, but catching sight of Uchiha Zuohao striking a pose in his armchair somehow put them at ease again.

Especially the sorcerers from Tokyo. Panda was already considering what to eat for dinner.

But just as Todo and Itadori prepared to attack, Hanami stared coldly at Jiahao and said something none of them could understand.

"Why did you stop me?"

"Are you preparing to unilaterally break our agreement?"

The cursed spirit's dizzying, nauseating whispers poured into their minds, but the information in Hanami's words shocked them even more.

"Hey, what the hell are you talking about, you monster?!"

Kugisaki finally turned her gaze away, glaring at the cursed spirit as she raised her hammer. "Were you born from some vicious dog's resentment? You open your mouth and start snapping at people with that bullshit!"

"No matter how messed up this guy is, he wouldn't... work with... cursed spirits... right?"

Kugisaki's voice grew quieter as she spoke. The more she thought about it... the less strange it seemed.

If there really was a human jujutsu sorcerer who would work with curses, then Jiahao, with his constant bouts of madness, might actually be the one.

"It's lying about you, right, Jiahao?!"

"There's no way you'd work with cursed spirits!"

Agitated, Itadori was about to step forward when Todo grabbed him, his expression solemn.

"Don't go any farther, brother."

Looking at Jiahao's completely unchanged expression, Todo already had his answer.

The longer Jiahao remained silent, the further everyone's hearts sank.

Only when the rate at which his valor points were soaring began to slow did Jiahao admit, "That's right. I'm working with cursed spirits."

As he spoke, Jiahao swept the kunai in his hand upward.

A sharp horizontal slash suddenly appeared across the forehead protector engraved with the character for "valor."

"Jujutsu High has nothing left to teach me."

Jiahao's indifferent gaze passed over Itadori, Fushiguro, Kugisaki, Maki, and the others in turn. "Too many bonds only make you lose sight of yourself."

"My only wish now is to become stronger. Strong enough to beat the shit out of alien jujutsu sorcerers and become the supreme being who rules the entire universe!"

"That gesture and those lines..."

Panda's mouth twitched as he muttered, "Did we just jump straight from the Chunin Exams to the part where Sasuke defects from the village?"

Had Itadori suddenly gone from Monkey D. Lujang to Naruto Uzujang?

This bargain-bin mashup of storylines was such a jumbled mess that the transitions made no sense.

"Move!"

Sensing that the barrier targeting Satoru Gojo was under attack, Hanami's tone grew impatient. "If you don't have the stomach to do it, then get out of my way!"

"Who do you think you're talking to?"

Jiahao vanished from his chair. In Hanami's perception, savage crimson eyes expanded endlessly.

Boom!!!

The right arm Jiahao had torn off by brute force spun through the air. Glaring crimson blood gushed from Hanami's severed shoulder!

Space erupted violently, swallowing and shredding most of Hanami's body in a single instant.

Bang!

With only half of Hanami's blood-soaked body remaining, Jiahao delivered another kick. Hanami spat a mouthful of blood and plunged into a deep crater.

Jiahao looked down coldly. "Watch your tone."

"You piece of trash."